sunset in Palermo
Palermo beach
gates to Heaven


the hike to the AMAZING veiw
Vulcano, if you look close there is like steam at the top of the moutain i.e. its a valcano
the really windy side of the island


My sad sad shoes, my friend kelsey said that I should take a picture of these shoes and send them to my family and ask for more money haaha
Lucious Green on Lipiri Islands
Lipiri...
our super awsome mini car, I actualy really want one of these
the boat ride to Lipiri
At the shores of Naples

Park of moments thoughts
Cappucino Naples style
These lemons were the size of my head.
Pompeii!


Sorento, the water is just sooooo amazing

The Popes residence during the summer
oil and vinager, my new love
photo shoot
lovely lake

Umm lets see.

Lets start with Midterms, YAY! so haha, I got my midterms back, B, B aaaaand the class I thought I was going to get an A in, C. haha. Shows you never really know, right? So I am pretty sure I am going to get out of here with Straight B's which I am JUST fine with thank you very much. And this is the hardest program I have ever been in soo all B's sounds great.

But after mid-terms I was home alone for like 4 days. It was weird. I mean I am like a inside person, I love my moments of aloness because I feel like I can think more, but when you are alone for so long, its kinda sad. It was ok though because one day I went to this Lake that the pope resides at during summer with two friends, and then Sunday I went to Tivoli by myself just to check it out. I must say, I really like getting out of the city, I can see why most people in NYC have a summer home, somtimes its just to much, its unexplainable, but its just nice to get away.

However, on Monday I left for Sorento off of the Amalfi coast. Now, if there is one thing in your life that you need to do, it is to go to the Amalfi coast. Well, ok, it pretty much looks just like Palos Verdes, but that doesn't make up for the fact that the people there are soooo nice and it was just soooo amazing for me to be on somthing that looked and smelt like home. But at the same time it was diffrent, it was just so beautiful. Must suck though during the summer with all the tourists, because it would be really awsome to go there and for it to be like it was for me, just 15 degrees warmer and it would be so nice! But during the summer, there would just be to many peoplee. Anyways, I am going there for part of my honeymoon, btw, whenever that will be. (/Barcelona, Nice, and the Canery Islands.)

OK! then to the part where I wasn't by myself.

Naples:

hahahaha, o man that was a shocker. I mean like I had herd from friends like, o yeah Naples isn't safe, just get pizza in Naples, Naples is so dirty blah blah blah. but for me I am one of those in through the ear out the other because I always like to think it can't be THAT bad. haha oooo it is, I mean ok it really is just very dirty and there are like a lot of homless people and when I was there at first, for like a couple of hours it was cold and like Italian men were being Italian Napolian men and didn't stop staring/honking so I was a little tense. HOWEVER, once Kelsey came and we met up with our couchsurfing friend, things were a lot better. Him and his friend took us all around Naples in their car we went on this wonderful drive down this hill that just showed off all of the coast and I just swore I was in California. I mean, ok, I know I am in Italy blah blah blah, but I can't help but miss California. It's just so weird how Italy is like my place of residence, but it isn't my home. How attached we can get to home. Well anyways, we turned in early because we were both just soooo tired.
The next day was suppose to be our "sight seeing day" but I mean it was just like a lot of buildings and monuments that we have seen allready, I know it sounds bad but I don't really regret not walking around for hours and hours. Instead me and Kelsey went to a grocery store, bought stuff for lunch and just sat at a park in the GLORIOUS sun and just talked and then we talked some more about life and how scary it is and how in high school everything seemed so much easier than what it was. Then we got into how in high school we were both so driven! I mean with school yes, but with our passions, we felt more alive in high school then we do now and neither of us really understood that, we thought it was because we were boyfriendless and lonely. But it really isn't, its because we lack that passion in our life not the passion from a boy but from doing stuff!!! I mean, sure I can work and go to school and hang out with friends and be totaly busy, but thats not enough. I need to feel the acomplishment from rehersal again, I need to sweat my ass of and then put it all out there and feel the rush of endorpahins that is so natural and not from drugs or alcahol. I mean I know I can get satisfaction from learning about diffrent cultures and teaching at a school and just living an ordinary life, but I wont be happy. I will feel like I didn't take any risks and I played my life safe, which I know is what I should do. But I can't, I mean yes it could turn out bad, but at least I know I tried, right? Because it could also be really really good. I know that I should get a bussniess degree and make lots of money, in fact I want lots of money a lot of the time because I feel like that will make me happy. But I know it wont. I know that after I buy that dress or that skirt, I will only be happy for a little bit. I want the real life happiness and passion that I just don't know how to obtain right now with the path that I have chosen. So I am going back to my roots, to when I was at least ok, when I had a passion and a life and then I will see from there.

Anyways, sorry that turned into more of a life rant than I really needed it to be, this whole year has been like that. But I felt like I needed to share because that was what happened in Naples.

Then we went to Lipiri. OMG was that not one of the most amazing places EVER!!! So me and Kelsey took the night train from Naples to Lipiri, I was really suprised at how well I slept, but it worked out. We arrived to Lipri at like 8 in the morning and once we got there we were just to excited to sleep. We stayed in a hotel room that during the summer would cost 400, we stayed for 60!!! and it was sooo worth it. We rented like this mini car thing and just drove it all over the island, like it was so much fun. We stood on this cliff that I seriously thought I was standing at the gates of heaven it was so magestic and so real. It was just so rejuvinating and totaly worth it! and we climbed down the cliff to the beach through lush greenary and I repeat again, it was just soooooo worth it. haha and then by like 5 we were tired, so we went back to the hotel, made dinner and we were alseep by 8.
Next morning we spent our day lying in the sun at the black beach on the island vulcano. We wanted to go into the hot springs, but since we had to check out of the hotel we didnt really have a place to wash off afterwards and we wernt in the mood for smelling like sulfar the rest of the day. So we just layed in the sun. again. just layed in the sun.

Then we went to Palermo. I really like this city, it had such a cooler vibe than Rome, Rome is just so stuck up and blah. Palermo had like vibes and a culture. Except for like the 42493284932 teenages that seemed to RULE the city. Me and Kelsey were walking through and were like seriously... are we in high school again. AND everyone was paired off and had no shame in showing there love for each other in front of all the other miserable singles. haha it was really funny though. What a fun city to live in when you are like 15. BUT as a 19 year old, it was also really amazing. I mean we went to this club and it was hot and sweaty like an island and there was just this really awsome latin vibe. Haha the guy that drove us around that night, well we were in his convertable somthing really expensive and Italian car and like he told me about how his mom is nobility and his dad is the cheif of the hospital, so this guy is loaded. He however did not buy us one drink, how lame. But its all good because he drove us around and he was sooo nice. Untill the end. Well since we had like a 9 oclock flight we just kinda decided to stay up all night, which worked out well (enough). Umm so he was waiting with us at the train station and like ok he was a really nice guy, but at the club I got these huge vibes that he was gay, I just thought he was gay whatever. wellll

So haha we are waiting and then he goes on this rant about how all the americans he knows are fat and like how Italians are so fit (ask me to do the accent and motion when I get home). And so me and my two friends, who are american as well, are just kinda flabber ghasted, I mean we started speaking really fast about how he just called us fat. and he was just like what what, whats wrong. It was just really insulting, I mean I just didn't know what to say. And THEN he starts asking me about the pants and the shoes that I was wearing asking if that was "fashionable" in the states and went on some dumb rant about how much better Italian crap is. Except he said addaias was an Italian brand, when it is in fact a german brand. So at this point we are just like on our last wind to stay awake so we are all giggly and just like can't beilve this is happening. and THEN he goes on to talk about how Italians make love at like 13 blah blah blah and how its weird that most americans wait untill they are 17 or 18. so he then called us unpassionate.

HAHA so Then he comes up to me and says, like I think that you are really beautiful and curvy and I love red heads and blue eyes, so pretty blah blah blah, and in Italy I kiss you because I like you. CRAP! I was just like, you called me fat, unfashiobale, unpassionate and now you want to kiss me!!!!!!!!!! O man me and Kelsey went on for like 2 hours about how sick we are of these Italian men!

Well anyways we came back home and overall it was a very amazing trip. I really cant wait for next month. This month will just suck, I have 3 10 page pappers to write and just crap to do. and no money. so I wont be going anywhere. But its ok because the 3 week trip I have is going to be AMAZING!

I am going to
Greece (Steph if I could get Jims e-mail that would be really nice)
to the
UK
to
France
to
Brussels
to
HOME!

:)

can't waaaait

whoa...

Sooooo I havn't posted since my last break, really.

But I don't think I have ever been so busy with just school work in my entire life. Like I seriously wake up, go to school, come home do homework and then fall back asleep and do it all over again. At first it wasn't so bad but all of a sudden things are starting to pile up. Like this week I had a paper proposal, an Italian mid-term, my travel in Italy mid-term, tommorow I am going on an on-site visit to this town called Celano from 8:30-6:30 and then about 400 pages of reading, and I decided that I want to audition for the Actors Academy in Oceanside so I have to memorize two monologues and find someone to video tape it to send it in, which means I need to make a resume to send in. And theeeeen I have my oral exam on monday, two more midterms one of which I am scared to death of, a 5 page paper due and on Tue I have to present on a novel which I havn't even read. Oh and I bought tennis shoes so I have been running aaaaaand today I am officaly sick.

But other than that. Lifes been ok. I mean the thing that sucks is I have cut back a lot on my spending, so I havn't been going anywhere, but that also means I havn't really been doing anything so I have been kinda bored.

Well two weekends ago Charlotte visited and it was sooooooo much fun because we went all around Rome and I saw sooo much of Rome that I have never even seen! It was fablious. I finaly walked through Villa Borghesie and walked down Via Corso and went to the top of Vitorrio Emanuelle. I still havn't been to the Vatican museams though which is a total bummer. Eventualy though.

Still planing on what I am going to do not next week but the week after for my break. I know now that it will encompase Italy, I just don't know in what way.

I miss you all very much.

Oh, and I also decided, haha, that I am switching my major to Theater....

:)

Arielle

So thats whats

sad santa...
Gaudi... and then my camera died...



Barcelona
they sell all the little animals in barcelona on the street!
PIGEONS!
the pigions were sooooooo cute
some friends from new zeland
me and kelsey in Amsterda
widest house in amsterdam
highest bridge
Ariel soap via amsterdam!
it was really cold
train from Gm to Netherlands
Dusseldorf picturesk

dusseldorf harbor
just wanted to show the beautiful german people haha
our couch surfing experience
the atm that ate my card!!!!

liverworst

AMAZING

K so I know I have been a terrible person for not updating, its just school started and it has begun to take over my life. I don't think I have ever had such hard classes, but the most interesting classes ever. I will get to them later because I need to write about my break, and then hopefully this weekend I will post pictures.

Germany!

I love Germany sooo much, I didn't think that I would like it as much as I did, but I just fell in love. It sucked because I was only there for a day but me and Kelsey were talking about going back for the next week break for like the whole time. Mostly because we freaking loved it. We went to Düsseldorf Germany and even though there wasn't that much to see there, it was still beautiful. I think I like it so much because of the night life there. In Rome you have to be so very elegant and well dressed and idk, there is this certain air that you must obtain, which is not a quality I posses. In Germany people were loud and fun and crazy and I laughed sooo hard while I was there for a night and gah! It was just sooo great. And then on Sunday we met up with this guy named Mattais, and he was just such a nice guy. He took us all around Düsseldorf and talked to us about traditions and the different beers that they have and the different meats. Omg I ate a lot of weird meat while I was there. Like liverwurst and sausages! Just so much hardiness. I think that it is acceptable for them to eat all these heavier fattier food though because they need insulation because it is SOOO cold! They need to be able to drink as much as they can so they can A. keep warm and B. forget about how cold it is. Haha

Then I went to Amsterdam for three days:
Well Amsterdam was not what I expected, maybe it would be better doing the weekend or during the summer but it wasn't like this craaazy place like I thought it was. No it was kind of boring actually. Well part of the problem was it was so freaking cold there that I just didn't want to go outside. I mean it was like reaaaaly cold there. We ate ALOT of fries and omg omg omg they were sooo delicious!! I swear the Mayonnaise there tastes differently. We did however go on a tour of Amsterdam which I think was the highlight of my trip there. We had a student tour guide who told us all about the Netherlands. Now Amsterdam is like the first place in Europe that I couldn't see myself living there for the rest of my life, well maybe Athens too, but anyways, what made me want to live there is the social ideologies the girl talked about. It was like a California in Europe minus the republicans! It was really rad. Like they have this HUGE problem against racism and not abiding by equal rights for everyone. During the times that Catholicism was looked down upon, the Dutch didn't really mind if people practiced their religion there. However they had three rules, if it isn't hurting anyone, if it’s good for bussniess and if you are discrete about it, then they didn't really care what you did. For example, she showed us a "secret" church, all it was a house that looked like all the others, but it was a place that people gathered for worship. It was obvious that Catholics were practicing their religion here because every Sunday, lo and behold 100 Catholics would be on the street and the street would echo with hymns. But when the cops came to investigate, well there is no cross on that building (i.e. they were being "discrete" about it) and well look at how many people are here buying food before they go in there (i.e. good for business) and well they are keeping to themselves (i.e. no one is getting hurt) then there must not be a Catholic church here. Gah! It was so cool. I mean that is their whole policy with pot, instead of calling them weed stores, they call them "coffee shops" (discrete) lots of people come to Amsterdam solely for that reason (business) and please tell me about any person who is stoned off of weed who kills people or harms themselves (safe). Another example is during WW2, the Dutch were solo sick of the Nazis taking over their lands and abusing the people of Amsterdam, i.e. the Jews. One day the Nazis decided to raid the Jewish quarter taking 100's of Jews to the camps, but they decided to do it on a day that was an open market day. So the many christens that were in the quarter saw the major brutality that the Nazis put upon the Jews, so the people of Amsterdam got together and devised a protest towards the Nazis, they joined in the streets shouting Protest Protest for the Jews!! And thousands upon thousands joined in the protest. In the end, unfortuantly, there wasn't much success, the leader was executed and many lost their lives. But the hope that it installed in the Jewish people hiding in Amsterdam was enough to get them through the rest of the struggle because it wasn't too long after the war was over. I also saw Anne Franks house, it was incredibly creepy to think that she hid up there for so long. I didn't even know that it was in Amsterdam that she lived. I think I will have to read the book again knowing what the city looks like.

There were so many other cool things like, the buildings and incredibly skinny. Mostly because the tax that was put on your house had to do with the width of your house, so many people made their house super skinny, but really long. That is also why a lot of them are tilted, besides the fact that the ground is coming out from under them because technically they are on water, but they lean forward because some wise guy decided that the best way to get furniture into house was to hoist them up with pulleys and rope and have them go through the windows, well the wind was so strong that it caused the furniture to crash into the houses, so he decided that the best way to have that not happen is to make the houses tilt forward decreasing the wind flow. Haha however, about 100 years later they realized that if they just made the polls longer that were attached to the house; they didn't have to make the houses tilt.

There were a lot of really cool stories. Erm well there are sooo many bikes in Amsterdam, it was really cool to me actually how many bikes there were and fuel efficient means of transportation. Even in the winter when I didn't even want to walk outside, people were ridding their bikes around. Another example of their progressive policies. Over all a really cool city. I just couldn't live there.

Oh almost forgot a biggy though, the Red light district. Omg it was so weird, I mean they are literally just standing there in the windows almost naked. It is so bizarre to me. Why anyone would want to do that job, idk. But it was allowed because Amsterdam was a dock city, meaning many men would be out at see for years and years and would have ONE day to come back and be away from the gross old stinky men that they had to be around for so long. Instead of letting them loose into the city, they just went straight to the red light district... It was kind of a necessary evil if you will. Today the mayor of Amsterdam is trying to get it shut down though, should be interesting.

SPAIN!

I love Spain; I could live in Barcelona for a long time. It had the best vibes out of any city I have ever been to. Unfortunately I missed the free tour for this one, which totally sucked, so I don't have any cool factoids. Besides the fact that the Cathedral that they are building by Guadi, they have been building it for 100 years and most likely wont finish in my life time. CRAAAZY! It is sooooo cool though, I mean really, one of the coolest things I have ever seen. A lot of his stuff is just so cool and so different. I honestly, dad, would recommend you going there and Rome, I mean you should really do both or at least go to Rome and then next year Barcelona or something because it really is one of my favorite cities in the world now, and O man this summer it is most likely going to be amazing. I wish I could just go live there, but unfortunately I don't have much monies!

So that was my trip, sorry it took so long, but I wanted to be able to have time and not be tired and write down EVERYTHING that I could remember. It prolly would have been better to do it each day, but when you were traveling like I was there really wasn't much time.

Classes:

best classes ever.

Cultural and Identity: This is my Anthropology class and I love it. We talked a lot today about Marxism and its influence on Italy and how ironically they were planning on having a socialist revolution that went really wrong and turned into a fascist regime. And then just a lot of "isms" about Italian culture that many people don't like. It is way chill.

Then Travel writing in Italy: my professor is like one of those women who are like very opionated and like kind of scary, but at the same time really smart and as long as you agree with her, you will get an A. But the topic is sooo interesting and like I think I can swing this class to go towards my major.

Then I have Urbanization of Rome, probably my least interesting class mostly because the ideas were kind of obvious, like in a city there are paths, these paths take you to where you want to go... blah blah, but it will still be a fun class because we go on a lot of sight visits, i.e. we go TO the street to study it. It’s going to be Awesome.

Umm I have decided that after the break I am going to go up France, starting in Nice, then Lyon, then Dijon (which is in the Bourgogne county and if I could pin point the place of my ancestry then I would go exactly there) and then Paris, fly over to Brussels to see Charlotte and then depending on my other friends from camp, either meet them in Amsterdam and then go to England or just go straight to England. :) But then again I guess a lot can change in 10 weeks but I am almost positive this is what I want to do.

:) Love and miss you all.
Arielle

simple life

Things have slowed down a lot this past week.



Pretty much this week was one of the fastest weeks of my life. I had class all day on Tue, I had an appointment with the post office for my permit to stay. Then I just had Italian every morning. Its kinda crazy, I can actually speak sentences now. Last week when we took the oral exam I kept asking what does that mean, I don't understand, and it was one word answers. This Friday I was able to respond in full sentences with only a couple of me non compito. Except I had to talk about my family which is really confusing. Its hard to talk about it even in English. Plus the word for step brother is sooooooo hard. And then step sister and half sister are the same word so how can I explain that my half sister is not a blood sister of my step brothers. And how I have like 9 other step brothers and sisters that I have never met before in my life. And how I have barely met my cousins? And that the only cousins that I really know are only my cousins through extensive marriages? haha anyways, when the family section comes up in languages I always cringe.

So this is the last week of the extensive language. I can't believe I have only been here for 2&1/2 weeks. It seems like sooooooo much longer. So much has happened yet I feel like I still haven't been doing all the things I need to be doing. I mean I have studied and I think I will get a good enough grade on the test, but I have not seen a lot of Rome that I want to! I am so angry because I once again slept through the flee market! And tonight is a soccer game with David Beckam and I'm not going! :(

buuuuut next week is our break. I will be going to Dusseldorf Germany, and staying with a couple of random people and then me and Kelsey are taking a train over to Amsterdam (which only cost us 24 euros) and we will be there for three nights and theeeeen I am flying to Barcelona for two days and theeeen about 5 hours in Milan because I leave sat morning to Milan and then fly out like 7 hours later for Rome. Kinda lame but I save a lot of money doing that.

I have also saved a lot of money by staying with random people and staying by myself in hostels.

I have such a big adventure ahead of me!!! ahhhh!

I don't really have any pictures. sorry.

oh Steph, a really cool story. So for a while I only had like 16 bucks in my bank account and my dad couldn't give me any money because he didn't have any. So I was freaking out because I need to book flights and hostels. So me and him talk and decide to cash in the Bonds Bobbie had got me, even though in 10 years I could have cashed them in and would have received 1,000 instead of 500. Even though that would have been nice in the future, I really need this money now because this is a chance of a life time. So my dad goes to cash them in and I got $1,400 for them. I felt so blessed at that moment because I knew then that Bobbie is still watching over me and she will continue to give me things in my life that make my life so amazing. I just started crying because I just couldn't believe it. My life is truly amazing.

<3 miss everyone. I hope everything is well back in the states.